Conventional liquid dispensers spray or extrude liquids such as adhesives, sealants, caulks, coatings and paints onto a substrate. Often, the dispensers include a liquid distribution manifold which may or may not have attached on/off dispensing guns. In addition to the initial installation of the dispensers, service or plant personnel must routinely remove and replace the manifold and/or guns for various maintenance reasons or other purposes. Due to the large number of dispensers typical in a manufacturing environment, the time spent installing, removing and reinstalling the dispensers can be significant.
A conventional manner of mounting a liquid dispenser involves bolting the liquid distribution manifold to a mounting member. However, bolting the manifold to the mounting member requires significant installation and removal time, and limits repositioning options. In this latter regard, if a plurality of bolt positions are provided to create a more versatile mounting area, the unused bolt holes may corrode or become plugged with leaked fluids. Moreover, mounting surfaces with multiple bolt holes are more expensive to manufacture.
As another option, a liquid distribution manifold may be clamped to a mounting rod. Split clamps used on cylindrical rods, for instance, allow rotation of the attached dispenser equipment about the rod. While this allows additional position adjustments of the dispenser equipment, it can also increase the amount of time required to position and secure the equipment because the installer must maintain the desired position while securing the clamps. Clamping to other mounting surfaces can be similarly time consuming.
Heated liquids present additional problems relative to the mounting hardware of a dispenser. Specifically, heat conductive mounting hardware can conduct heat away from the dispensing equipment and thereby lower the liquid application temperature. Overall heating energy may be increased to counteract this effect, however, this wastes energy and increases costs. Additionally, metal mountings in these arrangements may be difficult to handle due to their elevated temperature. On the other hand, insulating materials used to thermally isolate the mounting hardware may provide inadequate strength and durability when used as force bearing mounting hardware.
Accordingly, there is a need for mounting structure that allows rapid installation and removal of a liquid dispenser in a desired position. There is a further need for mounting structure with thermal insulation characteristics which particularly benefit heated dispensing equipment.